Conventional key fobs generally include a two-piece housing, molded silicone rubber buttons, a printed circuit board (PCB), an antenna, and a battery clip coupled to one of the two pieces of the housing. To reduce costs, the pieces of the housing are generally made from black plastic. A single piece of molded silicone rubber (substantially the same size as the housing) generally defines each of the buttons and a lip around the rubber piece to provide a seal between the two pieces of the housing. Carbon pieces are generally attached to the undersides of the buttons. The PCB is positioned beneath the silicon rubber buttons and includes electrical traces. When a button is depressed, the carbon piece on the underside of the button closes the traces on the PCB and activates a desired feature on a vehicle.
For a family of conventional key fobs, an entire family of tooling is required to accommodate varying numbers of buttons, patterns, textures, and other styling. Due to the cost of the additional tooling, molding a family of key fobs with different features and styling is difficult and expensive.